Cannabis Debate - Nats Get Nasty Over Green Threat

If there is one thing you can say of the Green Party in this
election, it is that they have run the cleanest campaign.
Despite barbs and ridicule from every main political party,
including those who may eventually depend on their support
to form a government, the Greens have refused to enter into
a negative campaign and have campaigned on their belief in
their own policies.

While this is admirable, things look
set to get harder as National launch a concerted campaign to
try and discredit the Greens in the eyes of voters. The
first blows have come this week with the Prime Minister
visiting the Coromandel to try and boost support for her MP
Murray McLean, and diminish that of Green co-leader Jeanette
Fitzsimons.

Depending on National’s success – or otherwise
in this smear campaign – the Greens are set to boost the
left wing vote with between three and five MPs in the next
parliament. The latest poll shows Fitzsimons opening a
healthy eight point lead over McLean and National, knowing
the significance of losing this seat, have begun digging the
dirt. There doesn’t appear to be a lot to dig and the Nats
are getting nasty.

The Prime Minister raised the issue of
the Greens cannabis policy on Wednesday in the Coromandel,
saying the policy of decriminalisation would lead to an
increase in use by children and would ‘rot their
brains.’

This follows National jumping on a New Zealand
First press release detailing a link on the Green website to
a site which provided a guide on environmental sabotage.
What seemed a minor story quickly blew up into a top story
on both TV news channels, Holmes and National Radio.

The
next day Tony Ryall and Fitzsimons tried to debate the
issues on the Kim Hill show, with a creepy Ryall saying he
was surprised Fitzsimons could remember her own policy
(implying she had smoked too much herb herself) and calling
Nandor Tanczos – number five on the Green list - Tandor
Lankzis. This wasn’t even close and sounded deliberately
insulting.

Following the Prime Minister’s comments on
their cannabis policy the Greens immediately challenged
Shipley to publicly debate the policy, but to no avail. This
is a shame because Ryall’s arguments for maintaining the
prohibition status quo of the drug showed a very poor
understanding of the issues and a policy based around a
conservative ideology rather than logic and reason.

It is
disappointing to see the cannabis issue treated as such an
election football and point-scoring device by National. If
National succeed in damaging the Greens with their own
cannabis policy, no party will ever want to touch it again.
And that would be a tragedy because, with some surveys
indicating 30 per cent of the population regularly using
the weed, this is something that clearly needs
addressing.

Ryall trotted out the example of a young woman
he met in a mental hospital whose parents urged him to keep
a firm line on drugs. Fine, but why? What has prohibition
done for their daughter? Cannabis may possibly have
contributed to her mental state, but prohibition didn’t stop
her getting it, it didn’t stop her using it, it didn’t
educate her at all, it turned her into a criminal along the
way and that certainly didn’t help her get the help she
needed.

People like Tony Ryall – and I daresay the rest of
his cabinet colleagues – probably have no idea of just how
much cannabis is out there, how incredibly easy it is to get
and how many people are using it. Police Minister Clem
Simich possibly knows because before he was ‘tuned up’ he
was a public supporter of decriminalistion himself.

There
are undoubtedly many more in the National Party who – given
a clear (and perhaps secret) conscience ballot – would vote
to decriminalise cannabis and, looking at the research,
these would likely be the more open minded and sensible
members.

The libertarian element in parliament –
Williamson, Luxton et al – ought logically to support
decriminalisation. And if ACT do not, then that, like
Prebble’s now infamous views on arts funding, would be at
odds with their philosophical base of emphasising the rights
of the individual.

National’s handling of the cannabis
debate has been a classic Delamere-style case of we know
best.

A high powered parliamentary select committee has,
after vigorously studying the numerous issues and consulting
with health and legal professionals recommended a review of
the law.

The police have an open mind to the idea. Clem
Simich has been forced into the closet but still supports
reform. The Ministry of Health are not adverse and it is
rumoured that even Jenny’s deputy – the honourable Wyatt
Creech has had the occasional toot.

Indeed for a while
there Delamere was trying to outlaw cigarettes while
advocating cannabis law reform. However that was around the
time his son was arrested and charged with possession, and
before FBI Director Louis Freeh visited the Beehive on his
anti-drug crusade. Perhaps it would help if one of
Delamere’s relatives had HIV.

National have taken their
hard line stance on this issue not because it represents the
views of New Zealanders, not because it makes sense, and not
because it represents the views of the National Party or the
Parliament. They have adopted this position because it
differentiates them from the parties of the left, and they
think it will go down well with the family vote, the older
vote, the paranoid vote and the redneck vote.

It has
everything to do with politics and nothing to do with health
and justice. It has everything to do with trying to keep a
National MP in a seat he is looking like losing and, as a
result, trying to keep National in government.

There is a
wealth of international and domestic research, and working
overseas examples, which suggest that cannabis use actually
decreases – especially among children - in a decriminalised
environment. It is commonsense that people are more likely
to seek help if they know they can admit to cannabis related
problems without fear of prosecution and a meaningful
education campaign is hindered by the criminal status of the
drug, despite acting as absolutely no deterrent.

Labour’s
Tim Barnett has long advocated a review of the law and
Labour will allow a conscience vote on the issue should it
ever arise in the House. The Alliance promise a full and
thorough inquiry into the judicial and health implications
of prohibition and decriminalisation.

Over half of all
adult New Zealanders have smoked cannabis at one time or
another in their lives which is a hell of a lot of criminals
for the police to hunt down and the courts to process.
Through her support of the criminal status of the drug
National is in effect saying that half of all Kiwi adults
should have criminal records. And a fair chunk of parliament
too.

As Jeanette Fitzsimons correctly says, the law cannot
be changed unless there is a majority in parliament
supporting that change. If parliament represents New Zealand
voters as it should, exactly what does Shipley have to
fear?

But if the Greens lose in Coromandel because they
have the courage to stand by their convictions – not to
mention the weight of evidence - then it is unlikely that
parliament will in the foreseeable future ever get a chance
to even debate the subject.

And there goes democracy… up
in a desperate puff of National Party
smokescreen.

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